Building a bridge
by fanficninja205
Summary: Jake Peralta is uncomfortable with emotions. Then why did he say those things? He deserved the beating he got from Teddy. He deserved being alone just for the look Amy gave him. Amy goes to see if he is alright and she and Jake slowly start to come to terms with the feelings they have for each other. Rated T for some minor language. Jake/Amy hurt/comfort. Please review!


Hi! I started watching _Brooklyn nine nine_ recently and I am totally rooting for there two. (So is Boyle. He ships them like crazy.) Here is a fanfic for all of us crazy shippers who want these two make the title of their sex tape together. (sorry couldn't resist) **Please review** , it makes my day.

* * *

They were taking their relationship a step _closer._ He shook his head. He wasn't bothered by it. No, no, no, no, no. Not bothered. Not in the slightest bit. God she had smiled.

 _Smiled._

He rubbed his head. He was so tired. He had been chasing perps all over Brooklyn these past few days and hadn't had a good night's sleep. He closed his eyes. Amy's smiley face appeared in front of him telling him about her and Teddy's excursion. He opened his eyes again.

It was night outside and everyone was getting ready to leave. His eyes travelled to where Amy was, talking to Rosa and Gina, waving her hands enthusiastically. He forced himself to believe that she was so excited about a new hand sanitiser. Yup. That's was what she was telling them about. Hand sanitiser.

Jake signed and stood up. His vision was blurry from the lack of sleep as he dragged himself to the exit.

"And it's going to be _so_ romantic! I can't believe Teddy has prepared everything just for me!"

Of course they had to stand in front of the door. And of course Amy had to look so happy and beautiful. No, he chided himself. Just happy.

"Jake hey! God, you really need to sleep don't you?" Amy frowned at him.

"Does crime sleep? No madam, it doesn't!" Perky, he commanded himself. Don't frown at her. Shoulders up.

"Not sleeping won't make crime stop happening either." He crossed her arms.

He couldn't look at her face. Not today. Not on Monday either, probably. Why wouldn't she just move out of his way?

"What do you want Amy?" He snapped.

Amy looked taken aback and he regretted snapping at her immediately. He signed. _Great job Peralta._

"Sorry, you are right, I'm tired." Without looking at her again, he stepped out of the precinct and huddled his shoulders against the cold.

 _Walk now Jake. Now look both ways before crossing the street Jake. Stay on the pavement Jake._

He walked. He looked both ways before crossing the street. He stayed on the pavement. Simple commands he gave himself so he wouldn't let his mind go back to Amy. He knew that he couldn't go home yet, not on his own, not today. So his feet took him all around Brooklyn. His favourite places, his favourite roads and parks. His feet moved on their own. He just went where they did.

Brooklyn was beautiful at night. It helped him, moving around on the streets letting his mind clear, not thinking anything at all.

 _Go home now Jake. Go take a shower. Go to bed. Sleep._

But his brain didn't follow his orders. Without him understanding it, his feet took him to another neighbourhood. A familiar one, but not his. He came to a halt outside a building and it took him a moment to realise what had happened.

Why was he here? He needed to go. Now.

"Jake!"

 _Shit._

"What are you doing here?" Amy jogged to where he stood, frozen to place.

No, no, _no._

"Um, just passing by." He gulped.

"You were supposed to be in bed! Look at this bags under your eyes, the are bigger than my thumps!"

"Sorry mom."

 _Now smile Jake. You just said a joke Jake. DEFINITELY DON'T ASK WHAT YOU ARE THINKING TO ASK JAKE._

"You put on lipstick. Going somewhere fancy tonight?" No she wasn't. She would have dressed up fancily as well. He knew the answer. Why did he ask?

"Oh, no, Teddy is coming at my place today." She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear self consciously.

Of course he is.

He didn't know what part of his brain malfunctioned next, but his mouth definitely didn't say "cool, have fun!".

"He isn't the right guy for you Amy."

 _Good job idiot._

"What?"

"I said, he is not the right guy for you." He exhaled. "Because…"

"Because what?"

"Teddy hey! Jake was just passing through, right Jake?" Amy glared him. Jake signed.

"Yeah. That's it. Goodnight."

He turned to leave but Teddy stepped in front of him.

"Don't "goodnight me". I heard what you were telling my girlfriend." Teddy leaned closer to him.

"Why don't you finish that sentence while we can both hear you?" Teddy's eyes narrowed.

"No- listen, it was stupid. I was going to tell a joke, it's nothing," he stammered.

"DO YOU SEE ME LAUGHING PERALTA?" Teddy exploded. "NEXT TIME I CATCH YOU "JOKING AROUND" LIKE THAT TO MY GIRLFRIEND I'M GOING TO HIT YOU SO HARD YOU WON'T FEEL YOUR FACE!"

"Teddy, whoa there it's fine, I knew he was joking." Amy placed a soothing hand on Teddy's shoulder. "Jake just go, leave. Please." Amy looked at him with pleading eyes and tilted her head ever so slightly to Teddy, who was fuming.

"I'm going it's fine, sorry I ruined your night."

 _No. No, not with that tone you loser. You stupid piece of-_

Teddy punched him. He was really good at punching.

Jake staggered back clutching his jaw with one hand.

The second punch came even faster that the first, making stars dance in front of his eyes.

He could hear Amy yelling at Teddy to stop, but Teddy wasn't in the mood to stop. Amy tried to yank him back but he brushed her off like she was a fly.

It took five seconds to punch him on the face hard enough to make him fall back and two more to kick him hard on the ribs and knee to make sure that he was definitely not able to fight back.

"ENOUGH!"

Dots swam in front of his eyes but he was pretty sure that Amy had smacked Teddy- hard- to shake him out of his rage. Jake seized the chance, rose to his feet and limped as quickly as possible to the opposite direction.

He paused to rest on an alley after a while. The world was tilting and his left eye was starting to swell.

 _Great._

It took him longer than normal to reach home and he had never been so relieved to see his messy apartment.

He found a bottle of wine- one of the cheap ones you find at your local mini market- and brought it with him to the couch.

His head hurt- he was going to have five bruises tomorrow, but he didn't bother to do anything about them. He clutched his side where Teddy had kicked him. He groaned when he put some pressure not he spots. Teddy hadn't exactly been holding back. He stretched his injured leg and opened the bottle of wine. Another mistake probably, but he didn't care. Not today.

He took a swig from the bottle. _You are a miserable, pathetic loser_ , he thought. He took another swig from the bottle. His family was crap, he was broke and his only friends were from the NYPD. And now he had managed to ruin the NYPD part. He imagined going to work on Monday. Having to stand everyone asking why his face was half purple and why he was limping. He imagined seeing Amy on Monday.

Amy.

He thought of Amy smiling, Amy laughing, Amy being happy. Being happy with Teddy. Hugging Teddy, kissing Teddy, marrying Teddy. Having children with Teddy. It was a bright future, he thought and drank more whine.

He was, in fact the only one who didn't have a bright future.

Amy would probably get engaged with Teddy and leave the NYPD at some point, Boyle would live happily with Vivian and they would eat shrimps every Monday and Thursday, Scully and Hitchcock would retire and live together and Holt would live happily with Kevin. Rosa would probably build a cabin in a swamp and shoot all of the animals who lived there with her riffle. Gina would probably get engaged at least ten more times. She would find something to do. She was Gina, after all.

And what would he do?

Live on his own for the rest of his life. The bank would probably take the house at some point and he would sleep at the precinct. He would most likely get shot in a mission. A single tear fell from his eye. Then another one. Then a lot more tears came and he didn't stop them. He let his shoulders shake at each sob. He didn't stop himself. He didn't think he could.

He drank more. Blood trickled from an open cut on a bruise on his forehead but he didn't care. He couldn't bring himself to care about anything actually. Not even about Amy. Not even about his future. _Let it come_ , he thought, _I have my bottle of wine with me._

* * *

Amy clutched her bag anxiously. She could go back. She wasn't late for work. _Yet._

She thought of Teddy punching Jake on the head. Jake limping away from Teddy and her, clutching his side.

She knocked the door.

"Jake it's me!"

No answer. Amy bit her lip.

"Are you in there, please I need to talk to you!" _Make sure you made it home last night._

Silence.

"Are you hurt? I'm sorry about Teddy, I don't know what happened! He is never like that!"

Still no one answered. Her pulse quickened. What if he wasn't home? What if he hadn't made it back? What if it was more serious than she thought? What if he had passed out somewhere?"

"Jake I'm coming in!" She pushed the door with her shoulder and it opened so quickly she nearly fell on her face. It had been unlocked. He had forgotten to lock the door.

Amy scanned the room until she spotted him. He was sitting on the couch his back turned to her.

"Jake!"

She ran to him and blanched when she saw him in full view. He was sitting on the couch with his shoulders slumped, head fallen forward, sleeping, his right arm wrapped around his torso, his left hand holding an empty whine bottle close to his chest.

Amy knelt down and placed her hands on his knees and shook them a little.

"Jake, wake up! Jake!"

He opened his eyes and raised his head.

Amy gasped.

He hadn't seen his face properly before and she wished she hadn't seen now, either.

His left eye had a purple bruise underneath and was halfway swollen shut. There where two identical bruises on his jaw and one smaller one on the right corner of his mouth. A bruise the seize of her hand decorated the upper right of his forehead. This one was uglier than the others, and she could see a line of dried blood starting from it. Jake's eyes stared at her. They were red rimmed.

Red. Rimmed.

She suddenly had a horrible vision of Jake stumbling to the couch with a bottle of whine, and drinking the whole thing clutching his side leaving his bruises untended, blood trickling down his face. Her heart broke at the thought of him being alone like that. He couldn't bring herself to imagine him crying. He couldn't bear the thought of him like that.

"Hey." She said softly. He blinked.

"Amy? God." He straightened his back, wincing as he gripped his side. He looked at the empty bottle in his hand and set it down.

"What are you doing here?" He asked wearily.

"I came to see if you are alright, I'm so sorry about yesterday, Teddy is never like that, I don't know what happened, I can't believe he beat you, he is always so gentle, I'm sorry, I'm so so-"

"Don't." He cut her. "Don't apologise it's not- it's my fault I shouldn't have come, let alone started that conversation, I deserved- he gestured to his face- that. And that- his side- and the leg, I was stupid, I'm stupid." He gingerly rubbed his good eye.

Amy felt her eyes watering. "You're not stupid and you definitely didn't deserve that." She bit her lip. "Where's the bathroom, lets have a look at your face. Can you stand up?"

Jake signed and pushed himself upwards. He swayed a little and she put her hands on his shoulders but he brushed her off.

"It's fine- this way." He limped to the bathroom which was a nice, big one with a map of Brooklyn over a white tub which surprisingly had mail in it.

Jake stood in the middle of the room and looked at her.

"Right." She commanded herself to hold it together. " You, go sit somewhere and I'll wet a tower."

Jake put down the lid of the toilet and sat on it.

"Head up." She ordered. He turned his head and faced her. His face was a mess but she could still see him underneath the bruises. His eyes were trained on her as she wiped the dried blood and gently rubbed cold water on his bruises.

"You are supposed to be with Teddy on your trip right now." He croaked.

"I canceled. He shouldn't have hit you." She said in a matter-of-fact way. "And anyway who else would've taken care of your purple face Peralta?" She joked half- heartedly.

Jake looked down. "No. You shouldn't have canceled."

Amy bit her lip. "How about you side? Shall we look at that?" She asked shakily.

He didn't say anything so she lifted his shirt slowly. There were two big bruises along his ribcage. She pressed them slightly and Jake stifled a groan but nothing seemed to be broken. Bending down, she pressed the wet towel on them.

"Thanks." He whispered.

"It's nothing." Amy released a sign.

"Can I ask you something?" She asked gently.

"Yeah."

"Why did you say that Teddy isn't the right guy for me?" She felt him tense a little. She tensed too, She didn't know what to expect. She probably shouldn't have asked now.

Jake stayed silent for a minute.

"Teddy is perfect for you. He is loving, and kind, and gentle, and smart and loves his job like you. It was a stupid thing to say. You chose him and he is great. I guess I just…" he tailed off. Amy looked up at Jake, noticing the bitterness when he said: you chose _him._

"You just what?" She pressed softly.

"Well, its just- there is this one cop in the NYPD that cares a lot about you. He may or may not have been a little sad to see you date Teddy. But that wasn't fair of him. He never asked you out, and now you are in a relationship and he can't do anything about it. So don't be too hard on him you know. He- he is doing his best right now."

A tear escaped Amy's eye.

"Jake I-" he shook his head a little.

"Please don't say anything."

So she didn't. She finished up with the bruises and stood up. Jake stood up as well. They didn't look at each other. When they reached the door she turned to him.

There was this gap between them filled with the things that were tearing them up. Jake's feelings for her. Her unacknowledged feelings for him. Her relationship with Teddy. How these things might effect their lives in the precinct. And their lives outside of it.

Jake stepped forward.

"I'm sorry about everything." He said softly.

Amy found herself stepping forward too.

"Don't be."

Her pulse quickened when she realised that if she moved her hand an inch more, her hand would touch his.

Slowly, he bent so close to her that his lips grazed hers. Amy's heart skipped a beat.

Jake pressed his lips a little closer. It was so, so, gentle. Barely even a kiss. But it was there saying everything they couldn't say out loud. It was a suggestion, one that was now standing brave against everything, such a fragile one, that they both needed to step in to protect it.

He pulled away, just a little and she released a shaky breath.

They locked eyes.

He looked so sad. Amy realised how this was for him. He loved her. It felt so strange but beautiful and intimate altogether. And she- she definitely felt something for him. Something too big for her chest to hold. But she had Teddy. He was the one always making the first move but there was that gap between them. They were both standing on opposite sides, trying to reach each other but it was so big. It felt so big. And despite their feelings he was the one who was alone. She had Teddy. She closed her eyes. Did she? Did she want to? Have Teddy?

Amy reached for his hand and held it tightly.

Jake closed his eyes and placed his head on her shoulder, nestling it on the crook of his neck.

It was a complicated gesture. He wasn't asking for something, but wasn't turning her down either. It was a gesture that showed surrender. Surrender to their problems. For now he just needed her to hold his hand and let him lean against her. She wanted that, too. For him to hold her and feel him against her. She hurried her head on his shoulder.

Jake lifted his head and pulled her to a hug. Amy wrapped her hands around him. It felt nice. It felt- _right._

To be with him like this.

"I want this to work." He whispered.

"Me too." She confessed.

"Okay." He said, and she could hear him smile.

"Okay." She said and smiled too.

It was a big gap, she knew it, but somehow- _somehow_ , they were starting to build a bridge.


End file.
